Re: Origin of AVIS name????

There's an old story in my branch of the Avis family that the name derives from that of the Portuguese king, contemporaneous with Elizabeth I of England. And that is why Avises turned up in Bristol (connected with Oporto) and why first sons in the family, such as my great-grandfather James Kingdom Avis (father of Tallis Avis, born Bristol in 1857), were given the name "kingdom" to assert their royal lineage. Sound far-fetched to me, but apparently a lot of royal riches got lost in Chancery and the Avises had to work for their living (like Tallis Avis who was village schoolmaster of Acle in Norfolk and wrote flowing romantic poems that got published in the Eastern Daily Press.